Tiverton and Wakefield

[Lalliella]

Hurrah 🎉🎉

Hope this is the beginning of the end for this rancid government.

I agree! It was worth staying up for.

Can I just say here, that if Labour and Lib Den blow the chance of getting rid of the Tories by refusing to form a coalition at election (should it be necessary) , It will be a tragedy indeed.
Ed and Sir Keir - WHATEVER IT TAKES TO REMOVE THEM. DO IT.

I was delighted to hear the news and that the Party Chairman resigning...I imagine Tories will look to get rid of BJ.

I wish it was but am not hopeful. I'd prefer Mr Johnson being carted off to a prison cell to face a number of criminal charges, which sadly won't happen.

I agree. And one of them standing aside in marginals so they don’t split the opposition vote. Get the bastards out!

Same here. Can’t believe the stuff he gets away with again and again. He’s Teflon man unfortunately.

I imagine Tories will look to get rid of BJ.

how can they do this?

they jyst had a bite on this, so the rules are not another vote for 12 months

so how can they get rid?

I am not surprised to see Dowden resign early this morning. He was scheduled by Bojo to do all the media interviews this morning and defend the by-election results.

It is completely embarrassing the way ministers make fools of themselves to go all out to defend the Prime Minister. Dowden had, had enough.

Dowden would have known it would be bad though. Pretty much everyone knew the tories would lose both by elections. It wouldn’t have been a surprise that he was defending bad results.

That letter surprised me in a good way!

Fabulous news 😁 I heartily agree though, we desperately need a progressive alliance to get the Tories out at the next election. I suspect they'll get rid of Johnson by then, so we can't have some new PM in their honeymoon period win the damn election after all the Tories have accepted while Johnson was PM.

Where I am is a safe Tory seat, but Lib Dems tend to do well when there's public resentment against the Tories. Labour and Greens get absolutely nowhere, but those extra votes could be enough to get Lib Dems over the line, with a big enough push.

He’d have to resign, and he’s not going to do that. Can only hope he becomes even more unpopular over the next year and takes the whole party down with him.

I'm surprised really that the Labour increase in Wakefield isn't bigger. I saw the turnout there was less than 40% last night but I assumed that'd be mostly people voting the Conservatives out. Good news all around though.

I'm guessing none of you live in Wakefield? I do and the turn out was rediculously low. It was embarrassing really.

Labour have ignored the area for years and now we get more of the same. They absolutely aren't the great saviours you all seem to think. The candidate (now MP) caused the local party to quit because yet again the national party are refusing to listen to what locals want. Cos you know, they Westminster so know better.

I refuse to vote for a party who won't acknowledge my sex based rights. I won't vote for a party which has neglected and ignores the needs of the area.

And yes, I returned a spoilt ballot because they are all a disgrace.

Johnsons own majority is lower that Tiverton isn’t it? I’m not convinced the people of Uxbridge will re-elect him at the next GE.
Looking at the swings looks like a lot of LD in Wakefield and L in Tiverton voted tactically.

I think Labour will be aiming for a outright win.

It’s Tiverton AND Honiton (I used to live in Honiton, please don’t forget about it) T&H for short 😉
Not surprised at all. BoJo is out of favour. The local Tory candidate was appalling. Richard Foorde was the only choice in T&H. The wind is changing.
Don’t know much about Wakefield but another awful candidate I understand.

Largest government by-election loss ever. Surely even the thickest Tory can work out that Boris stopped being a vote-winner some time ago? Labour would be delighted if he stays in place, he's a massive gift to them.

Let's hope that at least the message gets through that playing to the Daily Mail factor doesn't work - clearly the voters weren't impressed by Rwanda, threats to leave the EHCR, blaming Labour for the rail strikes. Time to try some radical new strategies like, er, obeying the law, telling the truth occasionally, managing the economy properly, acknowledging the whole Brexit mess and sorting it out?

@Lalliella

No, they were saying on the radio this morning that they could change the rules so it can be less than 12 months.

Labour have ignored the area for years
We've had 12 years of Tory governments in case you hadn't noticed - what do you expect Labour to do?

There's nothing more certain than the fact that Boris will be gone in a thrice, rules or no rules just as soon as enough Tories want him gone. Look how much they loved Thatcher - but she was toast as soon as they worried she was a vote loser.
If the Tories think Boris has run his course, he'll be out.

I'm pleased for the bloody nose but let's not get caught up in the hysteria:

They're mid term by-elections
The world is recovering from an unprecedented event (Pandemic)
We're seeing 1970 style inflation and discontent among the workforce
3rd World War starting
Main stream media trying desperately to remove elected politicians it doesn't approve of
Low low low turnouts

I'm not getting too excited.

Change the rules.

Or do what they did with Theresa May and force her out anyway.

She probably expects her local Labour Party to put forward a candidate who cares for the local constituency? You know, like what MPs are actually supposed to do?

It would really be better for Labour if BJ doesn't go. The longer he goes on dripping poison everywhere, the more chance any opposition has to remove the whole party. Arguably if the tories remove him now, the currently undecided but normally blue vote will see it as a fresh start and give them their votes back. So as much as I hate him, I hope he stays until as close to the next GE as possible to do as much damage to himself and the tories so we can then conclusively get rid of them all.

But agree with a PP that Labour has to sort itself out. They should have a lead far far higher than they do currently.

The last coalition was an absolute disaster for the Lib Dems and one of the reasons we've been stuck with the Tories for so long.